Don’t Let Them Steal What Can’t Be Replaced

"In early January, Kobe Bryant got a note from a reporter at ESPN. She was working on a story about a moment in Lakers’ history and she wanted to feature Kobe in the story... It would not have taken Kobe long to answer that inquiry. Maybe fifteen minutes. Maybe a few emails... Like with so many requests, it would have been so easy to say yes."Find out what Kobe did instead, and what that should mean to you, in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Don't let them steal what can't be replaced. In early January, Kobe Bryant got a note from a reporter at ESPN. She was working on a story about a moment in Lakers history, and she wanted to feature Kobe. That's one of the perks of the job, right? To be courted by the media, to have people care about your opinion, to have a legacy and a brand to maintain. It may not have taken Kobe long to answer that inquiry, maybe 15 minutes, maybe a few emails. At worst, they would have sent down a camera crew to his house for a brief sit-down. And there would have been benefits to this, too, for Kobe's shoe sales, his social media following, for his film and VC projects. And like with so many projects, it would have been easy to say yes. But that's not what Kobe did. Can't right now, he messaged the reporter. My girls

• 1:14Ryan Holiday?

  are keeping me busy. Hit me up in a couple of weeks. Some 2,000 years ago, Seneca eloquently wrote about how we have laid waste to our lives when we weren't aware of what we were losing, how much is wasted in pointless grief, foolish joy, greedy desire, and social amusements. How little of your own life, he said, was left to you. It's not that we are given too little time to live, it's that we waste too much of it, saying yes to things we'd be better off politely declining, jumping on every opportunity as if we had an unlimited amount of time. We protect our money, we protect our reputations, we protect our property, but our time? We act like we have more of it than we need. We say that our families matter to us, we say that we want to be happy,

• 1:59Ryan Holiday?

  that we are looking forward to slowing down, that we love peace and quiet, yet far too often, our choices betray a sadder truth, that we are addicted to obligations, that we lack the stout heart required to deliver bad news and say the dreaded words, no, or sorry, can't. Kobe didn't get much more time after he sent that text. Tragically, just a few more weeks with those girls he loves so much. And you, how much time do you have? That's right, you don't know. Which is why you have to be firm, you have to be strong, which is why you can't let people steal from you the one thing you can never get back: your precious time.

• 2:37Ryan Holiday?

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